Mobile smoke screening system

ABSTRACT

A minimum hazard visual screening cloud is formed by vaporizing diesel fuelnside a vehicle exhaust manifold pipe which, upon entering the ambient atmosphere, condenses into an aerosol comprised of small droplets, thereby producing a large sustaining cloud which obscures both the vehicle and the adjacent downwind areas.

GOVERNMENTAL INTEREST

The invention described herein may be manufactured, used, and licensedby or for the Government for Government purposes without payment to useof any royalties thereon.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a method of forming a visual screening cloudby using the heat of the engine exhaust manifold crossover pipe tovaporize a portion of the vehicle's on-board diesel fuel supply, or anyother similar "fog oil" which could be carried on-board in any auxiliarymilitary five galloons fuel cans.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART

Efforts to develop a method to protect individual tactical militaryvehicles from visual detection with a minimum hazard screening cloudhave been underway for a number of years. Various larger vehicles areconventionally equipped in the prior art with smoke grenades andlaunchers, whereby the grenades are launched from the vehicles toprovide a visual screen relative to the vehicles.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, methods are providedto establish, within a few seconds, a cloud which both screens thevehicle and provides a downwind obscurant for the adjacent areas Sincethe system is mounted upon and contained as an integral part of thevehicle, it is mobile with the vehicle and the vehicle operator is ableto initiate the system, and to turn the system off and on as thetactical situation warrants

The novel features of this invention, as well as the invention itself,both as to its organization and operation, will be be understood fromthe accompanying drawing, taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdescription

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a partially perspective plan view of the mobile smokescreening system of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to FIG. 1 it is seen that the preferred embodiment of thepresent invention includes a vehicle motor generally designated as 1.Extending rearward and below the motor 1 are two motor exhaust pipes 2,3which collect the fuel exhaust from the motor 1 when it is either idlingor used in propelling the vehicle. Diesel fuel is preferably used in themotor 1, although other fuels may be used, including gasoline, kerosene,naphtha, etc. The motor exhaust pipes 2,3 extend rearward of the vehicleand are joined into an exhaust line 15. The exhaust line 15 may includean exhaust muffler 16 while extending further rearwardly of the vehicleinto an exhaust outlet pipe 17 which terminates in an exhaust outlet 18for exhausting the fuel emissions which emanate from the motor 1 at thefront of the vehicle.

Extending between the two motor exhaust pipes 2,3 at a location rearwardof the motor 1 and forward of the exhaust line 15, is an exhaustmanifold crossover pipe 4, which is an open connection between the motorexhaust pipes 2,3. At the connections of the exhaust manifold crossoverpipe 4 with the exhaust pipes 2,3 are mounted spray nozzles 5,6respectively. Mounted between the exhaust manifold crossover pipe 4intermediate the spray nozzles 5,6 is a tee coupling 7 in communicationwith a fuel line 8 which is connected further to a fuel pump 9. The fuelpump 9 is in communication with a fuel supply line 10, which is suppliedwith diesel fuel taken from the vehicle's fuel supply, or drawn from astandard five gallon auxiliary military fuel can 11, as shown in FIG. 1of the preferred embodiment of the present invention. The fuel pump 9 iscontrolled by an electric control line 12 connected to the fuel pump 9and activated by a control switch 13 energized by an electric supply of24 volt standard electric power.

OPERATION

The operation of the mobile smoke screening system of the presentinvention is essentially as follows:

When a mobile smoke screen is desired, the operator of the vehicle turnson the control switch 13 which energizes the fuel pump 9 to supplydiesel fuel from the fuel supply 11 through fuel supply line 10 and fuelline 8 to the exhaust manifold crossover pipe. The fuel pump 9 injectsapproximately one-third of a gallon of the diesel fuel into the exhaustmanifold crossover pipe through the tee coupling 7 and into the twospray nozzles 5,6 which are drilled and tapped into the crossover pipe.Upon entering the motor exhaust, which has an internal temperatureapproaching 1000° F. as a result of the hot fuel exhaust from theactivated motor, the diesel fuel vaporizes and is prevented fromflashing or combusting by the depleted oxygen environment present withinthe motor exhaust pipe. The vaporized material then moves rearwardly anddownstream from the vehicle with the fuel emissions exhausting from theexhaust outlet pipe 17 through the exhaust pipe outlet 18 into theambient atmosphere. Upon entering into the atmosphere the vaporizedmaterial condenses into an aerosol of smoke comprised of tiny,persistent droplets producing a visually obscuring screen or cloud. Theaerosol of vaporized material is derived from diesel fuel which is veryeconomical in cost when compared with smoke grenades in the prior art.Also, the aerosol of vaporized material has been found to be minimallyhazardous to the environment in contrast to the ecologically damagingcontents of conventional smoke grenades. The smoke screening system ofthe present invention is mobile with the vehicle and be both quicklyinitiated and functioned by the vehicle operator as the tacticalsituation develops.

It is to be understood that the above description and the accompanyingdrawing are merely illustrative of the preferred embodiment of themobile smoke screening system of the present invention, and that nolimitations are intended in limitation thereof other than as defined inthe appended claims.

We claim:
 1. An improved method of forming an obscurant cloud from amotorized vehicle by using the heat of the vehicle motor exhaust, whichcomprises the steps of:injecting diesel fuel into the vehicle motorexhaust; and vaporizing the injected diesel fuel to form the obscurantcloud of vaporized diesel fuel upon entry into the ambient atmosphere.2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of injecting thediesel fuel, further includes spraying the diesel fuel into an exhaustmanifold crossover pipe mounted on and in communication with the motorvehicle exhaust.
 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein theobscurant cloud is an aerosol of the vaporized diesel fuel.